Mary Jane’s Guide: Research, how much is enough?

Just say no. It had such a quaint ring to it, hearkening back to a simpler time when some thought that binary choices – black and white – could be applied to substance use. In today’s political climate, no has switched to yes, as illustrated by a majority of presidential candidates who now support a spectrum of cannabis legalization policies. Some, though, like Mike Bloomberg, Joe Biden, Republicans and the Trump administration are stuck in another time. Their supposed concern? Research, or a perceived lack thereof.

To Bloomberg, marijuana legalization without research represents a “mad, passionate rush to let everybody do things.”Biden thinks “we should determine what other side effects would occur.” Republican John Cornyn, running again for his Texas Senate seat, echoed the two Democrats, saying “We have a lot of questions we need to answer.” The Trump administration’s position? A flat-out no.

Is there enough research to legalize cannabis for adult use? Yes and no.

First, no. By its very nature, research on any issue can never be “enough.” Humanity’s innate and insatiable hunger for understanding the world depends on its very elements: inquiring, testing, learning, knowing and changing.

Still, because of cannabis’ unique history, neither should insufficiency be an excuse. Consider these nine points:

It’s nearly impossible to conduct cannabis research in the U.S. anyway. The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 slotted marijuana into the most restrictive Schedule 1 under the auspices of “a lack of accepted safety.” Four attempts at rescheduling over the last fifty years failed. Virtually insurmountable federal barriers to scientific inquiry include multiagency scrutiny, low grade supply, no pharma big bucks, negative federal bias, problems with placebo, varying modes of ingestion, and no standard dose. The median cost of just one clinical trial, which can last several years, is $19 million.

Bloomberg’s, Biden’s, Cornyn’s and the Trump administration’s anxieties concerning cannabis research are little more than smoked fish. Their red herring statements are intended to distract from the fundamental issue: cannabis use by adults has been a human phenomenon for millennia and practiced by millions today. It’s been widely studied and it’s fairly safe.

What these politicians are really trying to do is roll the clock back to a time of simplistic binary – black and white – thinking. Back then, all they had to do was just say no … case closed.